Encased meat products have long been linked by means of a pair of linking chains as typically shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,668. These linking chains are expensive to fabricate, and are somewhat difficult to clean. Further, they are an aggressive mechanism and are not suitable for linking a strand of extruded meat product that is fragile and which cannot be rotated prior to being moved through the linking chains.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an apparatus and method for linking a fragile extruded meat strand which is effective to create the linking function regardless of whether or the meat strand is encased, and regardless of whether or not the meat strand is rotating.
A further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and method for linking a fragile extruded meat product utilizing three elongated identical augers with the meat strand being moved through a central axis among the augers wherein the flighting on the augers intermittently compress the strand to create a link portion.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.